Brooke Weston

News Item

Tara aims for netball success

Tara Philby is setting her sights on netball success, as she already plays for three teams, takes part in the county talent development squad and is aiming to play at a regional level.

Tara has been playing the sport for just two years. She took a ten-week course and enjoyed it so much that she signed up for Corby Netball Club. The coaches encouraged her to try for the talent development programme that is made up of promising players from all over the county.

Now Tara, from Year 10, takes part in as many as six training sessions per week, at Corby, Kettering and Northampton, each one lasting around two and a half hours! She trains with the Northants County Excel programme and has been accepted on regional trials; with her aim this year to make it onto a regional squad.

As well as the Excel team, Tara plays for the Corby Under-16s and for the Harper’s Brook and Natural Smiles adult squads. Each team has seven players and each game lasts for 60 minutes. It is physically demanding, especially for Tara in her pivotal, fast-paced role as centre, although in her best ever game her team scored an astonishing 63 times!

Tara said: ‘As centre you start the game off so you have always got to get the centre pass right otherwise you lose the ball straight away. As the centre goes everywhere on the court and watches everything you can direct the defenders. No matter who we are playing I go in with a positive attitude as I want to get the ball. We play every week and win quite a few of our matches. I get on well with my team-mates and now one of my older sisters coaches at Corby and helps us train for competitions.’